The Kitchen Gardens

Today I'm talking with Jessica Kelly at The Kitchen Gardens. You can follow on Facebook as well. If you'd like to contact Jessica, you may email her at Jess@thekitchengardens.com

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking to Jessica Kelly, cannot talk, at the Kitchen Gardens. Good morning, Jessica. How are you? Good morning, Mary. I'm so excited to speak with you today. I'm so excited you reached out because you...

00:29
commented on a comment that I left on a Facebook post and I was like, oh, this could be fun. Absolutely, I saw your comment and just immediately I thought why haven't I thought about being on a podcast to get the word out? So I thought I'm gonna reach out to her right now and let her know that I would be interested in speaking more about that. So yes, and I need all kinds of people to reach out because honestly, October is almost booked.

00:58
I didn't have five interviews scheduled two weeks ago. Oh, wow. Well, it's working. I dropped the ball. Whatever you're doing. Yeah, I dropped the ball and I was like, oh my God, I need to get October booked and I need to get booking for November because I have to stay on top of this.

01:16
It's going to be the holiday season here soon. And I was like, I need to get stuff booked now. Absolutely. Yeah. And I bet it's not an easy task because it's like constant, right? You're always booking. So I can't imagine. Yeah. And people are really, really great about if they respond, they want to do it. So if someone actually responds to a request, I'm pretty much sure they're going to want to talk to me. So that helps.

01:42
But anyway, let's talk about what you're doing to change the world in California. Well, I would love to think that I'm changing the world. That's my goal. I honestly, I'm so passionate about what I'm doing. So what my business is, is I help couples who are feeling overwhelmed by the urban life, go from feeling disconnected and stressed.

02:08
to living a slower, more intentional life on a homestead where they can improve their physical, mental and emotional health and strengthen their family bonds. And my emphasis is really on the family by teaching their children valuable life skills like self-reliance and responsibility so that they can experience a more fulfilling and sustaining way of life and a healthier life. So I'm a bit-

02:37
I'm very, very passionate about this. I have a background in nursing and so the health side of it is very important to me. Okay. So how are you helping families? So first of all, I'm actually in the middle of creating a course. In the past, I've done consulting work and I always knew that I wanted to create a course, but I wanted some time

03:07
to interview families, get to know their needs in regards to how they could start a homestead, what are the obstacles that they're encountering with leaving their urban life or city life, even the suburbs. I came from living a suburban life my whole entire life. And five years ago, my husband and I made the decision to buy some land and raise our kids for the sole purpose of

03:36
raising our kids on the land because we've had a lot of issues with some of our older children. And so what I've been doing is consulting work. I put the word out though, I'm really, really, really trying to just put the word out that this is a huge need in our current day. The children are suffering big time.

04:06
You know, as parents, we're also suffering. My generation, like we're having problems, a lot of problems with depression, anxiety, and other things, but the children are really suffering. And it's getting a little bit scary. I wouldn't say a little bit, it's really getting scary. And it's important to put the word out. So I started an Instagram account over a year ago, but I was very slow to get it going.

04:32
But the last six months have really hit it hard. I'm just getting this message out there. So that's what I'm doing. I'm putting the message out there. I'm very active on social media. I started a YouTube, but I'm actually not actively promoting anything on YouTube yet because I'm working on this curriculum. So I'm actually currently taking on conversations with couples who

05:01
are in this situation and like I'm scheduling 30 minute Zoom calls and I have a goal of having 50 Zoom calls before my curriculum is finalized. So that's where I'm going. I'm creating a course to literally get hands on with these people and help them get out of the city and to the homesteads where they can raise their kids and make it work for them. So.

05:30
That's what I'm doing in a nutshell. There's a lot more details, but.

05:35
have a lot of passion around it. Yeah, I'll probably ask some more questions and you'll be like, I'm so glad you asked that because I wanted to mention this. So when you say that our kids are suffering, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here because some people who listen to this podcast might be like, well, how are they suffering? I have four grown children. My daughter will be 35 in November. My stepson just turned 33.

06:03
My next son of my body is 27 and my youngest is 22 and he's a boy as well. They mostly were raised in a small Minnesota town of about, I think there were maybe 3,000, 4,000 people at the time in that town. We were in town, like our neighbors were right next to us and the library was within a block walking distance.

06:33
The park was a mile away maybe by bike and there were all kinds of places to go and be in nature so that helped. But they still had some issues too and I'm not going to get into it because my kids would probably not appreciate me outing their teenage years on my podcast. But you know, there were the usual teenage angst things that went on. And it wasn't bad. Like none of them did drugs, drank.

07:02
didn't go to those kind of behaviors to cope with what they perceived as their issues. But they definitely had attitudes sometimes and they definitely fought with each other. And when I needed them to not be at each other, I would be like, can you please go to the park? Can you please go to the library? Go find something productive to do that doesn't involve this sibling you're having beef with right now. So having said all that,

07:31
I know that a lot of kids when COVID started, when the pandemic started, had some real issues with being isolated and not really feeling like they could be with their friends. But I don't think that's what you're getting at. So what are you getting at when you say that our kids are suffering? Absolutely. So a part of it was COVID for sure. But really it's all about statistics and trends over time.

08:00
According to the CDC, the percentage of children ages 2 to 5 years with obesity is now 12%. 2 to 5. So this is like little kids and then the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 years with obesity is 20%, almost 21%. So that's an alarming statistic. If you look at the leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 9.

08:29
The last 100 years, it's been like the first, the leading cause has been accidents or unintentional injuries like car accidents and things. But it's the second and the third cause of leading cause of death that's concerning. So for children ages five to nine, the second leading cause of death is cancer. That's way higher than it has been in the past. And then for children ages 10 to 14,

08:57
the second highest is intentional self harm, so suicide. And that is the statistic that is really scary. They're 10 to 14 years old and that is the second leading cause of death. Also, if we compare to let's say 1950s, the leading cause of death was still childhood injury, but second came all these different things like heart disease, stroke, infant death,

09:27
influenza, tuberculosis, all of those came before suicide. So the statistics are saying that suicide and homicide rates have increased twofold or threefold among children since 1968. I know a lot of people have been hearing this, but unless you have it happen in your family, it doesn't feel maybe as close to home. But some other

09:56
really, really important statistics are mental health. So there's a study that was conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration that found that between 2016 and 2020, the number of children ages 3 to 17 years diagnosed with anxiety grew by 29% in four years and those with depression by 27%.

10:24
So we just have, we're like getting into this really intense mental health crisis era for children. And so, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I just, that's a lot of numbers and I wanted to step in for a second and break it up. So my dog is losing her mind. I'm so sorry. I assume you can hear her barking in the background. It's okay. I know you have an Aussie. I have one too.

10:53
There is no off switch, I swear to you. If there was, I would have found it by now. Okay, so having said all that, what... Okay, I catch a lot of news and I pay attention to the good news that the news stations try to put on as well as the bad ones. And I keep hearing a lot about how social media is really hurting our kids because our kids are...

11:22
are viewing these images of perfection and comparing themselves, and they don't feel like they live up, and they just keep consuming it, and it messes with their self-esteem. Do you think that's one of the reasons? Absolutely. Social media, as well as just screen time itself. So screen time, they've done a lot of research, and I wish so bad I knew this, back when I was raising my 15-year-old.

11:51
Because back then it was socially normal to be like, hey, just go turn on a TV, that, you know, turn on a show to calm your child down or bring, bring an iPad. And it was just very socially normal. Now, now things are changing, right? People are more aware of the detrimental effects of this, but, um, they say that the average amount of screen time that kids have right now between the ages of eight and 18 is seven and a half hours a day.

12:22
It's crazy. And what they're also seeing is not only affecting their self-esteem comparing and things on social media, but their brains are actually getting affected because they're getting addicted. So they're starting to have these addictive behaviors. So then their brains are starting to function like an addict, which is not okay, right? I mean, that...

12:51
sets you up for failure in life. But on top of that, so there was I saw this poll that was conducted by the Harris poll, I just thought this was crazy. So there were, it was it was on behalf of the Lego group. And they questioned nearly 3000 children in the US and the UK and China. And the results were quite eye opening, revealing that the majority of Chinese children wanted to grow up.

13:20
in science, technology, engineering, doesn't surprise us, right? But then American children, the number one spot for them for what they wanted to be when they grew up was to be a vlogger or a YouTuber. And I just, that's just crazy, right? And there's this term that they call, that a lot of TikTokers, they're terming

13:46
this brain, what it affects, how it affects their brain being on TikTok, even just creating content, they call it TikTok brain. And they're seeing how this TikTok brain is affecting these influencers themselves, by just being on there creating content and put posting it out and then thought watching, you know, their numbers go up or whatever the amount of time that they're putting on there.

14:13
So it's just crazy because these kids want to be YouTubers and vloggers now, but really it's not healthy. It's not good for our brains. So there's problems. Yes. Okay. So I had another question that didn't have to do with social media and I was so engrossed in what you're saying. It of course went away because it's what happens to me.

14:39
because all of you guys I talk to are so brilliant that you're actually answering my questions in a way that I have to think about it. So back when my daughter, my oldest child, was a toddler, so many years ago, obviously she'll be 35 soon, this stuff didn't exist. And I spent a lot of time as her mom keeping her entertained.

15:09
One of the things that was crazy is she loved my keys on my key ring of all things. I think it was because I had some fun, like key ring things on there. There weren't keys that were brightly colored and she loved to chew on my keys. And I know that's probably gross, but that's what she did. She would chew on the little toys that were on there and then she'd chew on the keys. And my husband at the time worked at a coffee shop. So we would go and visit daddy at the coffee shop.

15:39
And that sounds like a bad song, don't go there people. And so we'd be sitting there, I'd have my coffee, she'd have milk and she'd be playing with my key ring and watching the people come in and out. And she would ask me questions about people, which I thought was really interesting at a year and a half, two years old, that she was observing other people and what they were wearing and what they had for a bag or if they had a book. And...

16:05
I really loved that she was so observant because she wasn't bored. She was always paying attention. She always had a question. And I grew up without any of these screens in front of me. I mean, yeah, we had a TV, but you had to go to the TV and change the channel. And there were very few channels, you know, back in the 70s and 80s. And

16:33
I was not the most happiest child on the planet in my teens. I was teased in school. I had issues with my sister. I was kind of a sad girl, actually. And I kept it to myself. And I was definitely depressed looking back on it. I know I was. So I don't... I feel like teenagers go through...

17:00
some depression as they're figuring out who they are. But I also feel like all of this screen time just exacerbates it. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. So I to kind of piggy tail on that off of that. So I grew up also in the

17:29
And people talk about that now, right, is a great time to have a childhood. I did not have a lot of electronics around me there. We had movies, but you know, it was just very rare on the weekend or whatever. Um, but we get, I was the era of being out, you know, night games until 10 PM. No one's watching you. You're all out on the streets. You hang out until the street lights get turned off. Right. Yeah. Um, it was a great childhood.

18:00
Um, I did have exposure to this lifestyle growing up because even though I lived in the suburbs, suburbs, both my parents grew up with on a homestead kind of my dad grew up on a ranch and, um, he was, he, he's the kid who was 10 in the snow with a rifle on a horse. That story. That's my dad. Uh huh.

18:30
in the mountains, no one around for 40 miles and the nearest town had one stoplight. And it was a full hour drive away on a dirt road. So he grew up with this crazy remote lifestyle and he loved it. My mom grew up on hundreds of acres of land in the Uinta Mountains and 10 siblings, but they worked hard. They worked the land.

18:58
And but growing up, I had exposure to both of these worlds through my grandparents and visiting and summers and my grandma grew a garden. My other grandma cooked the best pies in the world. My dad took us hunting regularly growing up. It's funny because I got the reputation of being the sleepy hunter because I would always like, of course, you leave the house at 3am to go hunting, you know.

19:27
So I'm sleeping the whole drive to the mountain, wherever we're going hunting. And I like roll out of the truck. I'm just drowsy as I'll get out. We hike a little bit and then I shoot an animal and then I walk back down and I fall back to sleep in the truck. And so I got this reputation because I was a sharpshooter. Like I always got the animal like the first shot.

19:54
So I had exposure to this lifestyle of being in nature, enjoying the time that I had, like these were bonding moments for me and my family, for my dad and I, for me and my siblings. We still talk about these crazy hunting trips and these trips. You know, of course too, I love the connection that I've had with my grandma.

20:23
On the land, I go up to this property, even though she's passed. My grandpa passed before I was born, but we go up to this land and enjoy it every year and take our kids up there. My aunt runs a small homestead there. She has cows, she has horses and my, my kids play in the streams. They ride the horses. They do lots of chores, lots of chores.

20:51
Um, but they love it. It's so amazing for them to get outdoors and play and play and play. And that's one reason why I saw this happening. And I saw my kids, my older girls were struggling about, well, COVID. It was 2020 when we said, that's enough. We are buying some land and we are getting our kids healthier, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

21:19
And I had been working as a nurse in the NICU and I was just watching all these kids and family, dysfunctional families coming in and kids. And I would just go back to my childhood constantly to, to readdress this like feeling that I had about family and, and nature and the beauty of life that I developed growing up in this atmosphere. And it really grounded me.

21:49
And the more that I researched homesteading, the more I saw that although kids still have these challenges, normal teenage challenges on a homestead, we live on a homestead now and my teenagers do not want to do the work. Trust me, it's not easy. But I'm also seeing, especially for the little ones, because I have a 15-year-old down to a three-year-old and I have five kids. Four girls and one boy.

22:18
and he's my COVID baby. But a literal COVID baby, a real human being baby. Okay. Yeah. A really human being baby born during COVID. And I got a boy. I don't know how that happened after four girls, but I am just seeing, especially the little ones who are starting their lives on this homestead, how it's changing their, just their, our whole life.

22:47
We have so much more time together. And trust me, it's not easy for the parents, but the work is different, but way more rewarding than the work of parenting kids with addiction and obesity and all of these challenges that parents are dealing with. I'm just dealing with complaining about chores and things like that, normal kid stuff, right? Yeah.

23:15
But they're so much easier to deal with than addiction. Trust me. But this whole homestead has brought our family together. And I want to share that with other families, because I know that it works. I know that it works. OK, so I completely agree with you. I do. I wish that we had been able to do what we're doing now.

23:41
when my kids were younger, but we weren't in a position to do that then. So I guess my biggest question for you, because anybody listening who's not in a position to move their whole life to land outside of a city or a town, is there stuff that parents can do with their kids and still be in the suburbs? Because we had to find places to take the kids on the weekends to get them.

24:11
to a farm to understand that milk comes from cows and eggs come from chickens and that you can pick wild plums on state land in Minnesota on the trails that they have here because Minnesota is full of parks and hiking trails and we are the land of 10,000 lakes so that you can't throw a rock without hitting water here it seems like. So we would just find nature to go to and that's how we managed to do it. So what would you suggest?

24:40
Absolutely. Well, first of all, I believe homesteading is a state of mind. Uh-huh. I absolutely, because some people are like, well, I, you know, have a few chickens in my backyard and I make sourdoughs at homesteading. And I say, absolutely. So this can be accomplished where your current situation is. And it is just a state of mind. So turn off the screens. Start.

25:08
implementing some of these traditional values and routines into your daily life and you will see how it affects your family. So cooking from scratch, it's well known that it is so much healthier for you. Growing a garden is amazing and the nutrients that you get from your garden are incredible for your health and for your emotional health. I can't tell you how happy I am.

25:38
a homemade basil pesto with basil for my garden and I threw in tomatoes and it was incredible. It tastes so much better. My emotional health is just way better when I'm eating from the garden. Chickens bring me so much joy. There's nothing like grabbing eggs from your own chickens. I can't even explain to you the joy that comes from that. Those things can happen on a small

26:08
piece of land. The other thing that I would highly recommend or the other thing that I would say about that is sometimes if we don't have our eyes on our goal, we won't accomplish that goal because we're not focused in on it. I, five years ago, I should say seven years ago, if you would have asked me if we could afford to buy land in one or two years, I would have said absolutely not.

26:38
We could not afford that. But my husband and I made this goal. We put literally the picture in front of our minds at all costs we were gonna do this. Yep. And it was like God just like, and we felt like a spiritual confirmation that this is what we were to do for our family. And it was like miracle after miracle after miracle happened.

27:03
And here we are, we have two acres in California where land is super expensive. And we just never thought it could happen. And part of my course that I'm building, actually, I have, I actually have a real estate license, so I have some experience in real estate as well. Um, part of my course is I help people know what options are out there for them. Even if they feel like they have no options at all. Um.

27:33
And I, and it's part of my passion is business side of a homestead, because you have to financially understand how you can make this work, right? Yep. And there are ways and there are steps that you can take and there are ways to make income, I mean, for us, ultimately, this move was all about how do we use the land to pay for itself? And so we're building an Airbnb.

28:01
where I can do homesteading and gardening workshops, we're building a fruit stand, the orchard's getting set up. Like there's so many things that are happening that are gonna be bringing us more and more income to help pay for themselves. So that's a big part of it as well. Yes, and it takes time to build up your homestead and make it take care of itself. And

28:29
I don't mean the cows are going to milk themselves. I mean support itself. And we've been on ours for four years now. And it definitely does not support itself yet. We planted apple trees. We have like 20 or 22 apple trees. And we got, I think, 40 small honey gold apples last fall.

28:54
And I think we got maybe six this year because we had terrible weather here in Minnesota this spring and all the blooms got blown off the trees and they didn't get pollinated. So we didn't have remnant apples, but we have 20 freaking apple trees and we have a big garden did nothing this summer because of the weather. So there are things that happen that you can't foresee. And when those things happen, you're like, okay, how do we work around this next season?

29:24
There's a lot of learning by hook and by crook on a homestead if you've never done it before. And the thing I was going to say back 20 minutes ago when I was like I forgot I was going to ask or say is the thing that I think homesteading gives kids is some self-worth, some understanding of compassion and responsibility and autonomy.

29:52
If you're raising your kids on a homestead, you're teaching them that if they see a problem, here's how you, the kid, are capable of solving it. And if none of that works, then you go to mom and dad. I feel like. Absolutely. It's like a science experiment every day for kids. Yeah, and I just, I wanted to get that in there because I was thinking about it back 20 minutes ago and I got sidetracked and I was like, no, this is important and it just popped back in. And then the other thing. Absolutely.

30:21
The other thing I was thinking about, because I knew I was going to be talking to you today, is there's a saying about being an example, not a warning. And I feel like you're being an example. Because if you're an example, people want to follow. They want to try the thing that you're doing. If you're a warning, it's don't do that.

30:47
You know? And warnings are important. Warnings save us from doing something that could get us hurt or killed. Examples are fun things. They're like, Oh, look at that person doing that thing. I want to try that too. Yeah. Absolutely. I was thinking about that this morning as I was thinking about what I was going to talk to you about. I was like, you know, examples are way more fun than warnings anytime.

31:14
Absolutely. And honestly, I have found such a passion around this, this lifestyle. And it's fun for me. I literally wake up. It's funny how I think I saw a quote the other day. You know, you're not doing the right thing when you can't wait for the weekend, right? But when I wake up, I'm actually so excited for Monday morning. Because

31:38
I love what I'm doing. I love the homestead. I love the business I'm building around it. I love helping kids. When I was a nurse, honestly, I was so unhappy. I was unhappy going to work, even though I was doing something really worth doing. It was such a drag leaving my kids every day and seeing them suffer from my absence. And...

32:05
Being on the homestead and seeing them and their excitement every day, especially the little ones, has been so fulfilling for me. And I love that you mentioned self-esteem because I just did a post a couple days ago about a 75-year study done by Harvard about kids who did chores, and they found that kids who did chores were more successful and happier.

32:34
And the most surprising thing was the relationship with chores and self-esteem. So when you look at that 75 years of research and the most important thing for kids and success was chores. Did they do chores when they were little? I mean, here you go. Like the homestead lifestyle sets your kids up for the ability to have chores. All the time. I promise there's so much to do. There's no way they wouldn't have a chore.

33:03
like five chores a day if you wanted to hand out that many to them. But it's just such a good confidence builder. And this this study also talked about confidence being linked with competence later on. So they're just better what they do later on. And it's just amazing to see how the kids of our day, you know, I see

33:32
kindergarteners showing up not knowing how to put their shoes on, you know, at kindergarten. And it's, they, they, the parents are just saving their kids and we have to let our kids fail on the homestead and they learn and they get back up and they have scratches and bruises. And I saw this other thing that was talking about casts. Like when we were young,

33:56
There were so many casts hanging out, you know, in the elementary school. Everyone had a cast. I mean, I can't tell you how many casts I signed growing up. There aren't casts anymore, you guys. There's like kids don't fall and break their limbs as much because they're not out being active and doing things that push themselves beyond their comfort zone. Well, our parents are just protecting them, right? Too much. Yep. So.

34:25
Um, so yeah, I just, I love that correlation between chores and late and success later in life. Me too. And I did chores when I was growing up. I helped stack wood. I did dishes. I swept floors. I did all the things because we lived in, in Maine and it was an acre of land. And there was a swamp behind our house. There was like a bunch of trees and then a swamp and we heated our house with wood. So we were.

34:54
We were all summer long dealing with wood to prepare for the following winter, not the one that was coming. Because you always want to be a season ahead on firewood because this is very important because wood has to dry or it doesn't burn right. And I know this because I did it. But the other thing that I was going to say is I feel like, and I'm probably going to catch some heat for this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I feel like if you're going to have kids.

35:22
you have to be there for your kids. You have to be. Because if you're just gonna have kids and then take them to daycare at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in the morning, pick them up at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. in the evening and have like two, maybe three hours a day with them during the week, it's not enough. It's not enough time with your kids. And I was lucky, my mom was a stay at home mom until I was like 16.

35:53
I was a stay at home mom because I had four kids and the oldest was 12 and the youngest was a baby, like newborn. So I was home with my kids and when they left the house for school, I was there. When they got home from school, I was there. They had home cooked food. They had my attention. They had help if they had homework questions. I used to brush my daughter's hair even when she was 15, 16.

36:20
You know, and my 15 year old, 16 year old daughter didn't need me to brush her hair, but she liked it. And I'm not saying that everyone has to be a one person stays home couple. I'm saying this really badly. But I feel like when one of the parents is home with the kids, the kids do better. Absolutely. I agree. And I, that's...

36:48
I lived that right. I was working full time as a nurse and I could see and I think any other parent that's in this circumstance, you know, you can tell that your kids are suffering when you're gone and your household's falling apart. That's why people aren't having so many kids, right? Because they have two and they're like, holy crap, this is so much work. But it's so much work because we're trying to go work a full time job.

37:17
and then be a good parent. And that's, I'm telling you, it's near impossible to do. I tried and I tried. I was a nurse for 10 years. I kept having babies and pulling back my schedule and then I'd have to go back to work full time again. And then I was just juggling this life of trying to, and I'm not saying that there are circumstances that people have to do this. There's single parent families. There's definitely circumstances, but...

37:47
We are a materialistic society. And if we can cut back on that, so we can focus on our kids, if we just don't, if we feel like, well, we're working just for that extra trip or that extra thing, right. Or the big car, the nice car, whatever. If we can cut back and be able to be with our kids, that will bless us so much more than that extra money that you're making. Because you cannot replace.

38:17
childhood, you can't live it over again either. And you cannot replace the parent in a family situation. And that goes for moms and dads, you know, every kid needs a male figure as well and a female figure. And so working together to create this lifestyle where you can have, you know, and that's and well, sorry, I interrupted my own thought that can have this lifestyle

38:47
of raising your kids more on the land and trying to produce some of your own food and becoming self-sufficient and things, it's expensive. But there are ways to create a family economy around it where the kids are helping. You're selling eggs, you're building things or you're creating this productive environment.

39:14
atmosphere where your kids are taking over some of those roles of feeding the chickens, you know, cleaning out the coop, whatever it is, right, even baking and cooking my my 15 and 12 year olds, they can make entire meals. And my even my 10 year old can now like I could leave her with some of my younger kids for a little bit and she could make dinner if she needed. And my three year old

39:41
he's already emptying the dishwasher, you know, and he gets the eggs in the morning and he feeds the chickens. He knows the routine and our kids can do more than we realize. And there's this book called The Family Economy by Rory Groves. I absolutely love it because he talks about how the family, how it was designed to work. It was designed for us to actually spend most of our time together, providing

40:11
for our family. And I'm not talking about child labor, I'm talking about working together, pacing the younger kids, giving them plenty of time to play, but also teaching them how to contribute to the family unit and the economy of the family, actually producing and setting them up with skills and things for later in life. It's a really fascinating book and I recommend it to anyone looking into this lifestyle, but...

40:40
Um, but it's, but that's how it's been right for thousands of years. Families worked together and by doing that, they had stronger family relationships. Divorce was unheard of, right? Um, they were, they taught their kids in the home. They worshiped in the home together and they had a community that supported them as well. All of this is gone.

41:08
The community is gone in our day and age. If it's not for you, you're a lucky few. If you have neighbors and other people watching out for you, you're lucky. Because most people don't care anymore. And it's really sad. Um, because we're not dependent on each other anymore. We, we just order Amazon, you know, to drop off. So it's easy to stay in our own homes, but, um, it's sad. It's sad, but there's something we're missing.

41:38
in the human experience by going into this modern world of ours. And it's really sad to see it. And that is why I started this podcast, Jessica, because I was like, there's so many people who are doing cool old fashioned things that are building their communities back up. I need to talk to them. And I need to get them out in the world. And you're one of them. And I love you for doing it. Oh, I love you for doing what you're doing.

42:06
I am like the least social person you will ever meet. And so this is perfect for me because it gives me a social outlet, but I don't have to be around lots of people at the same time. So it makes me really happy to be doing something I think is good and communicating with people, but I don't have to be in a room with 10 people at a time. So we're at like 42 minutes. I try to keep these to half an hour. So I am going to let you go.

42:36
But I suspect there's a book in your future. I think once you get this course worked out and you start having people take it and you see how that goes and how you help people, I suspect in 10 years, you're probably gonna have a book that you write. I love that. That's definitely on my list of dreams for sure. Yeah, and keep, I mean, you don't have to listen to me, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Keep doing what you're doing. I mean,

43:03
I have talked to so many people over the last year who are just doing incredible things because they feel called to it. And not necessarily religiously called, but just like the world is calling them to do the thing they're doing. And if it feels like a calling, you might want to pick up the phone, you know? Absolutely. That's absolutely what this is. It was really scary to leave my nursing job. But I felt...

43:33
this was absolutely a calling for me, not just for my own family, because for sure it is for my family. But it is something that continues to, I mean, I get the chills thinking about it, right? So I know God is like, okay, this is what you're supposed to be doing. And this is why I've given you all these experiences in your life. It's prepared you for this one thing. And I feel 100% that that's it. And I love that I'm,

44:02
helping people because when I left nursing, that's what I miss, right? Is just helping people. And so actually right now I am putting the word out that I'm doing 30 minute Zoom calls with people, research only, not a sales call at all for my course. So if any, did I lose you? No, no, I'm still here. Oh good. I am, if you wanna take home sitting to the next level, I am

44:32
taking 30 minute calls with people, know what strings attached, I am doing research. And then you can ask me any questions you have about gardening or home studying, but I am trying to get as much research done for my course as possible. So can people just contact you through Messenger on Facebook or do you wanna give out your email or how do you want them to get hold of you? Absolutely, so a couple things, I have a website and email, I'm heavy on Instagram.

45:01
On my Instagram site, I have a link where you can actually click and sign up for a 30 minute call. But my, so my Instagram handle is at the kitchen gardens, but it's kitchen without an E and gardens without an E. So yeah, anyone can reach out and I would love to talk with them and schedule a 30 minute call. It'd be really helpful for my, for my course and my business. So

45:29
Alrighty, then I will put all of that in the show notes for when I release this next week and that way people can get hold of you. So if they want to be part of the project, they can be part of the project. I love that. Thank you very much for putting the word out. And Mary, thank you again for having me on the podcast. I absolutely love listening to it and I love what you're doing and I'm going to continue to follow your path as well. Thank you.

45:55
Every time you guys say thank you to me and say things like that, I get all blushy. It's like, oh, that's really sweet. All right, Jessica, thank you so much for your time today and good luck with everything you're doing. Thank you, Mary. You have a wonderful day. You too. Bye bye. Bye.